Chapter 1: Graduation Day
Disclaimer: The Big Bang Theory belongs to Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon. Nothing belongs to me.
What if… Faith had died for a few seconds during the events of "Graduation Day", just like Buffy did two seasons earlier? She could have flatlined in the ambulance or hospital and been revived - it's possible. What if someone else was called?
These are her stories.
She's just turned 19, and's down at the bar, feeling sorry for herself and drowning her tears in a virgin Cuban libre, since the bartender had taken one look at her fake ID and laughed. All by herself is no way to spend her birthday, but Junior's in jail again, Mama's down at the church, Meemaw's at home sound asleep, and don't no one know where Shelly is. Her ex-as-of-three-hours-ago-boyfriend is probably in some cheap-ass hotel with that whore-of-a-best-friend of hers, Jenny, and she's not exactly sorry neither of them are celebrating with her right then.
A man leans up against the bar, right next to her, drawing her attention away from her lousy-ass birthday. "Hey, sugar."
"Not interested." He's fifty if he's a day, and she's not so dumb that she don't notice the tan lines of a missing wedding ring on his finger.
He puts his hand on her leg and grins at her. "Now, don't be like that. Give us a smile."
"Get your hands off of me."
"There's no need to be rude, little girl."
She'll show him rude. "I said," she sets her drink down on the bar and wraps her hands around his wrist, "get your hands off of me before I hafta remove 'em for you." She tugs at his arm, but he ain't budging. If she's not mistaken, his teeth look a little more pointed-y than they had earlier and something about him just is flat out wrong. Missy desperately wants to get away from him, because he's settin' off her creepster-radar something awful.
He digs his fingers in hard enough to make her cry out, and she's suddenly reminded of her favorite prayer. Lord, give me patience… 'cause if you give me strength, I'mma gonna need bail money. It had come in useful dealing with Junior's houliganess and Shelly's… Shellyishness growing up.
She finds instead that the Lord does indeed work in mighty mysterious ways. Before she can say anything else to the creep, she sees a flash of white light and a dark-haired girl a few years younger than her smiling at her. She swears she can hear the girl say "Five-by-five, M?" just as this weird electrical tingle flows all over her body.
Suddenly, the bar looks like it's lit up all bright, and the smells are stronger, and she can hear the guys in the corner booth talking about the big game, and she can hear the bartender's heartbeat. She can hear the heartbeat of the drunk three chairs down, too, but she can't hear the weirdo's heartbeat. And she can smell this weird sulfur smell just oozing out his pores, and she knows… he's some type of demon.
Missy smiles at him, and loosens her grasp on his wrist. She slowly pours herself out of chair, and grabs him by the tie, leading him towards the door. The cowboys in the corner are now talking about how suddenly sensual she is, and she knows the vampire is thinking he's gonna get lucky.
In a dark alley behind the bar, Missy the Vampire Slayer makes her first kill, instinct taking over as she uses a broken crate to dust the creep, a smile on her face. She ready to be strong, she was born ready.